Pericope No. 16 Winter to Summer

2016.  Time passing gets crazier and crazier.  Don’t we say that all the time?  But we never tire of marveling it.  Or cursing it.  Flies.  Just flies by.  I managed to NOT post many sweet memories-- lots of love and fun shared that I don’t want to forget.   They are all blessings-- gifts from the Lord that He chose to be a part of our dailies -- our lives.  Our story.

There’s hardly a better way to begin a new year than with friends-- especially the WHOLE family-- and one that’s hard to find all together at once.

If we could publish our voice texts that fly between us each day, well, it could go several ways-- rolled eyes, a book deal, calls from CPS, a talk show or our kids never speak to us again.

We got to have our niece while she was in town.  Catherine loves my kids-- so of course, that makes me love her even more.

Julia celebrated her 14th birthday with girls.....and boys.  {It was our first coed party.}  It was a FUN night with some of the sweetest kids on the planet.

So these four -- haven’t gotten to spend a ton of time together but they’ve known each other their whole lives.  We’ve got to keep taking these pictures.

Gaga

I’ve seen a lot of these this year.  So has the washing machine.  

This is about that time when they came and took pictures of our home.  

Brighton had a great time on his 6th grade team last year.  Their coach was so good for them.  We had a fun time watching them!

The Princess Diaries.  She nailed it.

D-Town-- the most favorite event of the Watermark year it seems

Birthday number we are close to not remembering anymore....

This deserves a whole post but this will have to do for now-- B in trouble, consequences moving the log pile.  B sees the new and freshly painted Adirondack chairs and decides to load the logs in the chairs and DRAG them across the yard.  Yep.

The annual Bluebonnet delivery from Nana and Papa

We got to have RJ and Megan in town for a Merge Weekend-- a premarital training/weekend to help get them ready for the BIG DAY.  It was a dream come true to have them here.

That time we got to TALK to Amy Grant..... 

Open House at PHS and TJ slips her this hat.

Love these daddy/daughter dates

Spring break FUN

Easter selfie

This is what the school room looked like MOST of the time.  B’s binder this year looks much the same.

TobyMac -- some things just don’t get old.  

Foundation Group girls-- special gals.  Missing Kelsey in this pic!

Grateful for friends like Ashley.

We got to host the pastor from my home church in Soperton during Watermark’s church conference.  He was a JOY to have in our home.

Spending time with these sisters is always fun.  

These girls-- been exercising their imaginations for a decade.  They could write a book on how little girls should really play.

How fun is it that your 1st cousin plays minor league ball?!

Wrestling matches are wonderful entertainment.

Just grateful

Mother’s Day 2016

It was a joy to have my friends come over while my Mom was in town.  These women have prayed for her during her second round of breast cancer.  She made her famous whipping cream pound cake and we poured plenty of coffee.  She even brought her Bundt pan.

Cutting up after warm ups-- Julia’s ballet posse

Loveliness in motion

Remey’s little Graham-- Julia babysitting-- I could make a “time” comment here but I will restrain myself.

And later, I found this as screensaver on the family phone.

Nikki hosted the “school’s out” party for Julia’s class-- and LOOK at our clothes!!  It was sweater weather in MAY!  In Texas.

Bittersweet morning....  I could not process the emotions of it on the day-- way too much going on internally.  Remember on one post or another I had said, parenting had been really hard.  Jeff is forever my favorite for remembering and for making it a moment.

Sweetness does happen from time to time in our home.

First lake trip of the summer-- it was harder to get out there this summer.  Every summer we say we are going to do better.

First time Julia pulled B behind the boat.

Jeff and Brighton got to make this memory fishing with our friend, Tim Bach.  

One of my favorite things over the summer-- CAMP JOY!  

And this is how her summer kicked off-- Summer math class plus Margo Dean ballet intensive in the morning plus Camp Joy in the afternoon equals naps in the Eno by the pool.  Something like that.

Jeff bought and and sold a house-  Julia chose paint colors and light fixtures and did a great job.  We got it ready as a family at the end but Jeff did most of the work.  The open house was the most fun. ; )

Jeff and I took a weekend and went to one of Heartlight’s parenting conferences.  Mark Greggston has some of the best stuff around.  Check out his podcasts on the app Parenting Today’s Teens.  Worth every minute.

I started seeing more of this lately-- “Feel my muscle, Mom”.  

We loved having Jason close by for a few months this summer as he played for the Rough Riders in Frisco.  He always knows how to make everyone feel so special.

ADPi got my sweet niece here and we talked her into staying over-- Jason being close by helped our chances of getting her to stay!

We enjoyed showing off Fort Worth all week.

Celebrating Em

Julia got to spend a week at Camp Barnabas-- her first trip.  We got a call from her leader telling us Julia wanted to talk to us about staying another week.  

Anniversary date with Jeff-- 24 years.

Game night with the neighbors

We got to have this sweet family overnight.  It’s NEVER long enough!

A momma can’t resist genuine smiles.

Their parents were celebrating their 20th in ALASKA and we got these two for dinner.  Table conversation I will never forget.

And then school started........